Cher is opening up about her time with Tina Turner prior to her tragic passing this week.
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On Wednesday, May 24, the 77-year-old singer revealed that she spent some quality time with Turner before she died. The music icon passed away on Wednesday at age 83 following a “long illness,” her publicist Bernard Doherty confirmed to PEOPLE.
During a conversation with MSNBC, Cher gave details of how she got to catch up with her old friend at her home in Zurich, Switzerland, saying the late singer “was really happy,” despite being “really sick.”
“I started going to visit her because I thought, ‘I need to put this time into our friendship, so she knows we haven’t forgotten her,’” Cher explained.
“So we all took turns going and spending time with her and it made her happy,” she continued. “[Turner] said, ‘I can’t spend too much time…’ Then five hours later we were laughing like crazy. She was having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick and not wanting people to know about it.”
The cause of Turner’s death has yet to be released, though she had a long history of health struggles dating all the way back to 1978 when she was diagnosed with hypertension. She also suffered a stroke in 2013, just three weeks after she married her husband, Erwin Bach.
Following some unpleasant side effects from her initial treatment, Turner turned to homeopathic remedies, which only worsened her condition and eventually led her to have total kidney failure. Bach donated his kidney to his wife in April 2017, and while the procedure was a success, Turner revealed during interview with the European Kidney Health Alliance that she still experienced mild symptoms.
On Wednesday, Cher referred to the fact that Turner “had her dialysis machine in her house” during their time together, but insisted that she remained “so strong” and “fought this sickness for such a long time”.
“But I know, towards the end, she told me once, she said, ‘I’m really ready. I just don’t want to put up with this anymore,’” the singer said of the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
